Going forward, I would want the goals and outcomes to be defined and approved by all stakeholders, before a single line of code has been written.
In my experience that is almost impossible to acheive. I think only one project I've worked on had defined goals and outcomes before the code was written that did not subsequently change and that was a very short contract making a small addition to an existing system.
"No plan survives contact with the enemy" is as true today as it was in 19th century Prussia.
Hi, Dave. Thank you for the comment. Love the quote. I'm always looking for ways to improve the way I approach my work. Based on your experience, how would you recommend I approach new projects and problems in the future?
Hi Chadwin. Some of your other points will help with a spec that is not defined 100%, particularly designing a system that is flexible to change and communication. If the system is easy to change then finding out you need to make a change at a late stage isn't as much of a problem and by communicating with the client often you should spot such things a bit earlier.
Sometimes all you can do is know a particular client can be problematic and schedule extra time to deal with the inevitable changes.
Dave Murray
In my experience that is almost impossible to acheive. I think only one project I've worked on had defined goals and outcomes before the code was written that did not subsequently change and that was a very short contract making a small addition to an existing system.
"No plan survives contact with the enemy" is as true today as it was in 19th century Prussia.